Three accused in fentanyl overdoses to stand trial for manslaughter

Three out-of-province men have been sent straight to trial on manslaughter and criminal negligence charges in connection with last year’s fentanyl-laced cocaine overdoses in Saskatoon.

The provincial Crown confirmed a direct indictment was filed on Wednesday in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench against Japmanjot Grewal, Azam Kabani and Shervin Dass Beeharry.

The expedited process, granted by the Attorney General, allows a case to skip the preliminary hearing at provincial court and proceed directly to the superior court level for trial. It could take months before any trial dates are set.

The three men were arrested in March 2018 and initially charged with drug trafficking-related offences after seven people overdosed on what police believe was tainted cocaine. Four of them died.

In February, police charged Grewal, 23, Kabani, 21, and Beeharry, 20, with four counts each of manslaughter and criminal negligence causing death, and three counts each of criminal negligence causing bodily harm, in connection with the overdoses.

Trafficking charges against Kabani were dropped just before the drug trial began in Saskatoon provincial court earlier this year.

The defence filed an application to challenge the information police provided a judge in order to obtain a search warrant for a home on Pawlychenko Lane, where drugs — including cocaine mixed with fentanyl — were seized.

The hearing was scheduled to start on June 24, but on Wednesday, defence lawyers requested an adjournment, saying more time was needed to review the evidence disclosed against their clients.

Beeharry’s lawyer, Brian Pfefferle, said the federal Crown has provided “thousands of pages of additional disclosure since the commencement of the trial in April,” and defence council received some of the documents on Monday.

The Crown and police agencies, together, are required to provide “timely and full disclosure” to the defence so they know the case that is being made against their clients, Pfefferle said.

“We hope that this adjournment will actually help us more efficiently represent these accused people because we won’t be finding out information at trial that will cause significant delays,” he added.

Federal prosecutor Wade McBride said some of the documents were provided “in response to specific requests.”

“We got the material; we felt we were obliged to disclose it, and we did,” he said when asked about the timeliness of the disclosure.

Trial dates have been rescheduled for weeks in July and September. Pfefferle noted that a delay application can be made if the trial isn’t heard within 18 months of the charges being laid, as per timelines set by the Supreme Court of Canada’s Jordan decision.

The 18-month deadline is in September.

bmcadam@postmedia.com

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